Tears cloud my eyes as I drag myself to my feet. I’m going to feel the ache of this tomorrow.

I back away. I don’t bend down to reach for my stake. If it were in my hand again, I’d feel like I needed to use it—to do the thing I set out to do.

The thought of staking Roman… my own heart feels like it’s being split in two just thinking about it.

“Please don’t tell anyone.” There’s a desperation in his voice that makes my heart rip further apart. “They’ll kill me, and…” He cuts off like he’s choking on the words. “I can’t die. Not yet.”

“I’ll think about it,” is all I can manage to say.

He nods. He opens his mouth to say more, but I shake my head.

“Let me explain,” he says anyway.

I almost tell him no, but I need to know. If not for me, then for my troupe. Why would he be masquerading as a magician when they’d kill him if they found out?

“You have two minutes. I guess I owe you that.”

“Ava… I don’t want you to feel like you owe me.”

“Don’t say my name. You have less than two minutes now.”

He swallows. “The vampire I was in love with. Once I knew what life could look like as a vampire, I wanted that instead. I had plenty of money from my trust fund to buy as much blood as we needed. I didn’t want to be part of a group of magicians that hunt vampires, but I did want to live forever because she was going to live forever. So she turned me. And then she died before anyone even knew what I’d done.”

“But you’re still here. Why?”

He’s silent.

“Revenge,” I say softly. Everyone’s been hurt. Everyone wants to fix it by hurting someone else. I understand it, but more and more, I wonder if I’ve been wrong my whole life about going after it. “What are you doing?”

He shrugs. “I don’t really know. But if I get the chance to show someone that all vampires aren’t evil, then that’s one more person who might help me change things.”

He’s talking about me.

“Does Willow know?”

He shakes his head. “Not that I’m a vampire. She knows I loved one though. She knows we’re not all bad.”

“You might not be a killer, but you’re definitely a liar.” My fingers brush my lips.

He looks down at his feet. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I’ve been fighting that since… since you stuck your neck into that alley to save Willow without caring about what happened to yourself.”